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Melvin D. Levine

News about Melvin D. Levine, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times. More

Updated: Feb. 28, 2011

Dr. Melvin D. Levine, a pediatrician, was one of the most prominent voices in the field of learning disabilities until sexual molestation charges surfaced in 2008. His books and lectures were widely acclaimed by both teachers and parents.

Dr. Levine died in February 2011, at 71, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Dr. Levine was found in the woods near his Rougemont, N.C., home with a gunshot wound to his forehead. His death was reported a day after a class-action sexual abuse and malpractice suit was filed against him in Boston.

The suit alleged that while a doctor at Children's Hospital Boston from 1966 to 1985, he "stroked, massaged and manipulated the genitals of his patients in a manner which was not medically necessary."

Although Dr. Levine had long been dogged by charges of sexually abusing young male patients, he had maintained that he was innocent. He was never convicted on any abuse charge, and never faced criminal charges.

Several plaintiffs said that Dr. Levine’s abuse had clouded their lives, and that they hoped for resolution in the lawsuit.

In 2009, Dr. Levine agreed in a consent order approved on March 20 that year to stop practicing medicine in North Carolina or anywhere else. The action came as the state medical board conducted an inquiry into charges that Dr. Levine sexually abused patients in his pediatric practice.

In the consent order, the state medical board said it had been prepared to present testimony that the genital examinations Dr. Levine conducted on five unnamed patients were conducted outside the presence of a parent or chaperone; were not medically indicated and were either not documented in the medical record; or not documented according to prevailing standards.

There had been complaints, including a civil lawsuit, against Dr. Levine dating back more than two decades. None of the complaints were proved in court.

Alan Schneider, a lawyer who represented Dr. Levine, said the pediatrician agreed to the consent order because the medical board proceeding "has been and would continue to be a major distraction from Dr. Levine's primary mission to help individuals with serious learning difficulties and developmental problems."

Until the sexual abuse charges, Dr. Levine was a leading advocate for children with learning disabilities whose fame spread through his books, including “A Mind at a Time,” as well as through a PBS documentary, “Misunderstood Minds,” and a nationwide schedule of lectures.

With Charles Schwab, Dr. Levine founded a nonprofit group, All Kinds of Minds, that has trained thousands of teachers. Dr. Levine’s approach stressed that whatever their learning disabilities — learning differences, he called them — all children also had strengths to build on.

Dr. Levine was chief of ambulatory pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, before moving to the University of North Carolina in 1985. He was a Rhodes Scholar and attended Harvard Medical School. Dr. Levine, born on Jan. 20, 1940, grew up on Long Island, N.Y.